This week, Street Roots’ Creative Writing prompt was a response to the shooting at Pulse in Orlando, Fla. Vendors were encouraged to write their own responses. Here is what they wrote.
In Response to the Orlando Shooting
By Aileen McPherson
Is it terror or tragedy?
10s, 100s, 1,000s – does it matter how many?
Senseless killing, lives lost,
Never to be loved or love again.
Memories are fragile, histories are fractured,
Mankind, womankind, all kinds,
Oh, the humanity of it all!
Black, white, read all over,
Culture clash, systems crash,
Protaganists, antagonists and lovers unite.
Calling all nations, free your souls!
Love thyself, love one another,
Love through leadership, love by example,
Learn the meaning of love,
Teach love as life, watch violence recede,
Then humanity can succeed.
Heaven It!
By C.W.
Heaven it!
So it will fit
So all creation is like
With pure faith with a hit
Of the unity of the martial law
Of perfect tranquil awe.
And set our site on a heavenly order
Of the hypnotic sorter
Of the friend
Of serenity’s order
Of cosmic arrivals
Of all creation’s survival.
Glory to our insight
Jehovah’s pure delight
Of natural creations of
Heavenly celebrations
Be the friends of martial law
With a robe of protection
And a realm with no question.
The greatest gift is compassion
In the bond of government’s friendship
The heavenly order of birth of Israel’s blendship
The light of spiritual movement of the rainbow
Robes of the chosen in all kinship.
Comedic revelations
With joyous celebration
Of tears of joy
In the revelation for the
Newest and oldest generations.
Born again Jews
In the flow of the flesh
In comfort
A passionate cause
Of order
In the totality of the inner soul’s completeness.
My soul is light with charity’s light.
Different Versions of Love
By Cathy E.
Are there different versions of love in every individual?
Can love be like growing cancerous cells feeding on human hosts so marveled at by scientists?
Is it creation of life through pain caused in order for beauty and hope to exist?
How about the lighter and genuine side like the wind flowing through the trees expelling continuous life seed by seed for simple oxygen to sustain our planet? Or the beautiful dance of life between flower and bee?
In the end, my love comes with pain. The pain causes me to feel, understand and realize how deep my love can grow. Through love I can feel, relate and care to be moved to act on the greater good for the next individual, for the next movement I am passionate about.
To bring awareness to society’s eyes on issues that need recognition. I may have knowledge on what to do or how to act, but until I experience pain, loss and suffering, I may never know how to feel from my heart the right action to take for the greater good.
Thoughts are Affecting
by Amy Turco
Growing up in Tampa, Fla., when I think about the slaughter at Pulse in Orlando, scary thoughts run through my head. I have some friends that are gay or lesbian and the thought about them going to Pulse to try something new or having been there before and deciding to go on that night is scary. But thankfully that didn’t happen. And to also find out that Disney World could have been a targeted place for him is even more scary. My friends and family are always going there on a regular basis. My family and friends travel to Orlando, about 45 minutes to an hour drive.
Also to find out a former Marine hero off duty to be that hero helping people out of the building is amazing to me. Living in Tampa with my family for 28 years, it’s just really scary. My sister even says she’s afraid to go anywhere.
America
by Rachel Dawson
'Merica!
The savior of the whole world.
The best and most superior culture and country.
We know how to do everything right.
Want to know how to get fat, rich and lazy?!
We will tell you because we are the benevolent all knowing power!
Nevermind that we will destroy your culture and take it apart bit by bit because ours is superior anyway.
We are doing you a favor.
You were wrong from the beginning.
